French Version

Tom PRINCIPATO - Interview June 25th 2009

1. You are here today for the Blues en Bourgogne Festival.


Yes.

AM : What do you think of this place ?

Oh the Château is beautiful, a fantastic setting I couldn't ask for a nicer bill.









2. Can you talk about, say why you are here today ?


Money ! (laughing). No, we just have any further festivals, we are finishing our European tour, our second European tour of this year. We had already been once in February, and March and we go to Italy tomorrow for the final show, and we are very pleased to be here.









3. Maybe people don't know your music, can you talk about the history...


Okay. I'm a guitarist and singer, and I'm from Washington, D.C. area, I'm 57 years old and I've been a professional musician since I was 19 years old, in 1971 and I do an eclectic mix of American root styles, we do blues and rock'n'roll, and some latin flavoured influences, we've been doing tango and some swing, we just do an eclectic mix of root styles from America and the world actually, and I have over a dozen albums out, the last one is 'Raising the Roof'.







4. Can you talk about your new album ?


Well, the last few years, I've been playing three piece for a long time, also it's only three piece for the concert tonight, and extended group of four pieces, we have a congas player now, so we do a lot of syncopated funky rhythms, we do almost exclusively music that I compose myself, so a lot of the music from "Raising The Roof" is in the style of New Orleans, funky, rhythm'n'blues something like the Meters and groups like that.

AM : What is your favourite songs on this album ?

From our newest album, a couple of my favourites are 'Lock and Key', 'Too Damn Funky' and a ballad called 'Mi Solea'.

AM : What are the themes developed on this album ?

The themes, Well, just funky music that's it. We have one that's a parody too, a blues parody which is called 'They Called for Stormy Monday', 'but Mustang Sally is just as Bad', it refers to requests that audiences make that musicians are tired of hearing.




5. Do you have some hobbies apart from the music, what do you do ?



Yeah, cooking is a habit of mine, I also like antique furniture, I enjoy that and, I try to restore it a little bit, and I like antique electric guitars and I try to restore them as well.

AM : Do you want to add something, do want to introduce the other musicians who are playing with you tonight ?

Sure. The guys in the band tonight are Jay Turner on bass and John Tracey on drums, he is the newest one in the band, and our congas player, who unfortunately, for personal reasons, couldn't make this tour, is Josh Howell our congas and percussionist.

AM : Thank you very much Tom for this interview.